A blog to share views from the field

Staff

Kamil Pawłowski – Editor-in-Chief
Kamil is currently working as the Emergency & Reporting Officer for UNICEF Myanmar. He will return to Fletcher in September 2013 to complete his second year. At Fletcher, he studies forced migration, human security and humanitarianism. Prior to coming to Fletcher he worked for an international refugee resettlement organization in Seattle, WA, and for an organization that helped immigrants in their path toward American citizenship. Kamil is interested in human security in the context of forced migration, particularly among persecuted ethnic groups in Myanmar/Burma. He is also interested in the after-affects of displacement after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Kamil has citizenship in the United States and Poland, and calls both Poznań and Seattle home. He holds a dual-degree from the University of Washington with a BA in International Studies – Forced Migration, and a BA in Slavic Languages and Literature.

Ross Weistroffer – Editor-in-Chief
Ross is a first-year masters student studying human security, with a focus on mass violence. He is also interested in crisis management and the role of technology and psychology in security issues. Before coming to Fletcher, Ross interned with the Genocide Prevention Task Force at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the US Department of State. He graduated from American University with a BA in History and a BA in International Studies.

Keren Yohannes – Editor-in-ChiefKeren is a second-year masters student studying human security and humanitarianism. Her specific interest is in developing inclusive practices in humanitarian assistance. Prior to Fletcher, she completed a yearlong study of social services for displaced persons with disabilities in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Keren has also worked in the domestic resettlement of refugees to Kentucky, on human rights training at the Minnesota Center for Victims of Torture, and with the Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration at the US Department of State. She graduated from Macalester College with a BA in International and African Studies, and is a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow.

Laura Padgett – Senior Blog Editor
Laura is a second-year masters student and a Board of Overseers Scholar. She is particularly interested in the question of how local contexts challenge the implementation strategies and sustainability of human rights protections and judicial/security sector reforms in peacekeeping and post-atrocity transitional contexts. Most recently, Laura worked in Kinshasa as a consultant with the DR Congo Office of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Prior to that, Laura was a litigation paralegal for four years with New York-based law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP, and also worked some in migration policy-related advocacy in northern Thailand. Laura did her undergraduate studies in Cultural Anthropology & Political Science at Duke University.

David Folorunso – Blog Editor

Andra Bosneag – Senior Editor
Andra is a second year masters student at Fletcher studying human rights, human security, and minorities. This summer Andra worked with the Advocacy Project in India, supporting marginalized populations through Vikalp, an NGO dedicated to LBTI and women’s rights. Before Fletcher, she worked extensively with minority populations, most recently with AmeriCorps VISTA, implementing a tutoring and mentoring program for minority students in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She holds a BA from Macalester College with a double major in International and Hispanic Studies.

Kathryn Joyce
Kathryn Joyce is a first year masters student studying human rights and human security, with a specific focus on women’s rights and gender development in North and West Africa. She is currently working on a Minority Issues Project for the Fletcher Human Rights Practicum. Prior to Fletcher, Kathryn served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania as an EFL teacher at the local junior high and high school. During her service, she organized and managed community projects and focused on girls’ education and empowerment by managing the Girls’ Mentoring Center. Kathryn also taught at the American School of Douala, Cameroon and at Klongbanprao Elementary School in Pathumthani, Thailand. She volunteered at an HIV/AIDS orphanage and a wildlife conservation project in Khayelitsha and Mpumalanga province, South Africa. Kathryn graduated from the University of Richmond with a B.A. in International Studies and History.

Gabrielle Soltys – Senior Editor
Gabrielle is a second year masters student focusing on Development Economics, Human Security, and Conflict Resolution. Her specific interests are insecurity and its effect on economic and social development, gender and conflict, transnational organized crime, migration, urbanization, and the Latin American region in general. She is writing her thesis on urban violence in Rio de Janeiro favelas, stigmatization of favela residents, and attempts by residents to counter active exclusion and marginalization by the Brazilian state and society. Prior to attending Fletcher, Gabrielle worked at the US Department of Justice on international legal matters and received her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Shikhty Sunny – Senior Editor

Kazue Evans – Editor/Marketing, Outreach & Events Planner
Kazue is a first-year masters student studying development economics, NGO management and human security with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to Fletcher, she worked as a member of the Fukushima Decontamination team in the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. She also worked at a small IT company in sales, marketing and business development. She received her Bachelor of Laws with a focus in African Politics from Keio University. In college, she interned at the Japan Association for Refugees and has also volunteered in Kenya and Honduras. She enjoys meeting new people, exercising, cooking, hiking and traveling. Her favorite destinations so far have been Morocco and Croatia.

Gabriel Gonzalez-Kreisberg – Editor

Ji Yeon Lee – Editor
Ji Yeon is a first-year MALD student from South Korea focusing on migration, human security, and development. Prior to coming to Fletcher she had an internship experience at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations in New York, engaging in the works of Social Affairs and Human Rights Team in the 3rd Committee, and at the Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy in Korea, mainly dealing with international marriage migrant women from Southeast Asia. She was a research assistant at the Center for International Studies Inha University in Korea, contributing to the publication of Pacific Focus: Inha Journal of International Studies. Ji Yeon received her BA from Inha University. She is a native Korean and speaks Spanish.

Alicia Tozour – Editor
Alicia is a first-year masters student, focusing on gender and human security. Before entering Fletcher, she worked at Grassroots International (GRI), an international human rights and sustainable development foundation dedicated to supporting social movements in the Global South in their attainment of land, water, food, and natural resource rights. Through her work with GRI, she analyzed prominent ongoing and emerging international issues ranging from aid effectiveness and food security in Haiti, land distribution and environmental degradation in Brazil, and restriction of movement and resources in occupied Palestine, each through the lens of a resource rights framework. Prior to her employment at GRI, Alicia has worked in various capacities with Amnesty International USA, initially as the president of her college chapter and then after graduation with the Boston Firefly Project, a local chapter geared towards young professionals. She received her BA in Global Studies: Politics, Culture, and Society from Lesley University.

Dallin VanLeuven – Editor
Dallin is a first-year masters student at Fletcher focusing on transitional justice and human security. He spent the past three years working as an educator in Cairo, Egypt and documenting the Arab Spring in print and photographs. He received a BA in Justice Studies from Westminster College and interned with the US Embassy to the Kingdom of Belgium.

Justin Pena – Marketing & Outreach ChiefJustin is a first-year masters student at the Fletcher School, concentrating in Security Studies and Pacific Asia. With an interest in Chinese society and US-China relations, he has focused his studies on China’s civil society and security issues. Prior to Fletcher, he interned for the China Development Brief, a Beijing-based NGO reporting on China’s civil society sector. He has also spent time working for Taurus Education, a Chinese firm that provides assistance and services to Chinese students aspiring to pursue higher education in the US. This past summer, Justin worked as a marketing intern for Zerve, Inc., an internet start-up in New York City. He holds a BA in Government and International Relations from Wesleyan University.